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In South Africa, once notorious for racial segregation under the apartheid regime, Afua Hirsch finds a country in transition, with a new creativity emerging from the roots up in the townships as the once-oppressed reclaim their art scene. She explores how far this process is driven by what locals call ‘ekasi’, the street-cool of the townships.
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00:02Africa, one of the fastest-growing parts of the world, and with the youngest population.
00:10I'm Afua Hirsch, a journalist here to discover how young creatives are shaking things up
00:16and reinventing culture in some of the continent's biggest countries,
00:21Nigeria, South Africa, and Morocco.
00:26Overcoming challenges and reimagining the past with art, music, fashion, and dance that's wowing the world.
00:36This is an Africa we don't usually see.
00:39Africa on its own terms and in full voice.
01:02South Africa, home to a population with an average age of just 27.
01:08You immediately feel the buzz.
01:12The country was once a byword for racial segregation under its apartheid system.
01:17Now it's in transition, and what a transition.
01:23I've come not to the wine-growing area of the Western Cape that draws the tourists,
01:28but to the east, where I want to explore creativity emerging from the townships,
01:33as the once oppressed reclaim their art scene.
01:37It's driven by what locals here call Ikasi, the street cool of the townships,
01:43that's connecting South Africa's old traditions with new styles.
01:48So there's no better place for me to start than South Africa's biggest township, Soweto.
01:57Soweto is definitely much bigger than I had appreciated.
02:01It's got pockets that really feel quite affluent, quite middle class.
02:06It's obviously coming from outside, you just think of Soweto.
02:09Soweto is synonymous with the poverty and oppression of black people under apartheid and the resistance and the rebellion.
02:15You don't think of it as a place where people are actually thriving.
02:20And that really seems to be Soweto is the destination now.
02:33It's the place that defined the look and sound of Ikasi, township cool.
02:42And its soundtrack right now is an exciting new house music, Amapiano.
02:51It's huge on social media.
02:54Hashtag Amapiano has amassed over a billion streams,
02:58inspiring viral TikTok dance challenges all across the globe.
03:02African music, dance, contemporary youth culture is undeniably taking over right now.
03:08You see all the big hip-hop and R&B stars in America now want to work with Afrobeat and
03:13Amapiano artists.
03:15It's a coming together of these cultures that have grown up from the same African roots,
03:20but had very different evolutions, and taking global culture by storm.
03:25Soweto's own, Bontley Modissel, is one of South Africa's new superstars.
03:30An actor, musician and dancer with millions of global TikTok followers.
03:37A new Amapiano song has just dropped.
03:40Bontley and her star choreographer, Joseph, have to move quickly
03:43to record a fresh dance challenge ahead of the crowd.
03:47Hey!
04:01We barely said hello, and Bontley is already putting me through my paces for my first Amapiano dance class.
04:09Okay, so you ready to do this?
04:10This is so cute. I'm ready. I'm ready.
04:13Okay, come. Let's get to it.
04:15One of the earliest moves of Amapiano would be the pouncing cat, right?
04:18Your arms are here. Okay.
04:21And it's called the pouncing cat because of your movement.
04:24So there's a...
04:28Now your feet are involved as well.
04:30You're going on your heel, then you're flat-footed.
04:33You go on your heel, flat. Heel, flat. Nice. Heel, flat. Heel, flat. Heel, flat.
04:42Now we're going to involve the arms.
04:45And a ga-da-da. And a da-da-da. And double tight.
04:50Da-da-ga-ga-ga. Da-da-da-da.
05:01These dance steps I'm learning are all about a kasi attitude.
05:06One, two, three, four, ta-ta, shoot.
05:11That's what I'm saying!
05:14I'm proud of you.
05:16Thank you, you're such a good teacher.
05:18I mean, you know it's my jam.
05:19Yeah, I mean it is, but like, it's real, okay?
05:22It's not just for the grand.
05:23It's not for the grand.
05:24It's real.
05:25It's real.
05:26It's the real-life team move.
05:29What is kasi culture?
05:32Oh, jeez, man, it's everything that is of the township.
05:36It's the fashion, it's the language, it's the dance, it's the music, it's the people.
05:41So it really encourages you to dress how you feel and show up.
05:45Self-expression.
05:46It's self-expression.
05:47So it's not like uniformed.
05:49No, you really do what you want and how you feel.
05:51It's like the best level of expression because it's limitless.
05:54What about South Africa has shaped this particular culture in a unique way?
05:59I mean, South Africa within itself is made up of, one you can say, like, 11 official
06:05languages, right?
06:06So you've got to understand that the diversity of the people doesn't allow a uniform kind
06:11of look and feel, right?
06:12But there are sounds that are very authentic or they are lingos or chants, right?
06:18I mean, if you go to an Amapiano vibe anywhere, there are things that people are saying in
06:23unison, okay?
06:24And it's not to say that it's anything like spiritual or anything like that, but maybe
06:28it is quite spiritual to say that people come up with these chants and we say them simultaneously.
06:35It's like a frequency that everyone's happening to.
06:36Exactly.
06:36And it really sets everything off.
06:39So the whole idea of South Africa is this rainbow nation that actually creates an inclusive
06:43future for all different backgrounds.
06:45Amapiano is like the manifestation of that.
06:48A hundred percent.
06:49A hundred percent.
06:50You literally see it in real time.
06:51It's a beautiful melting pot, a meeting of various minds, backgrounds, ethnicities,
06:57tribes, languages coming together and then creating something that is unbelievable, you
07:03know?
07:04Boantle recently danced her way into the Guinness World Records, leading 250 dancers in the largest
07:10ever synchronized Amapiano dance at Soweto's Hector Peterson Museum, a place that's a reminder
07:17that Amapiano is more than joyous music and dance.
07:20It's the expression of a youth movement very aware of past struggles against oppression.
07:25So we are at the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto.
07:30And this is the place where we commemorate and think of the youth of South Africa.
07:36On the 16th of June in 1976, the youth of South Africa, about 10 to 20,000 black students
07:43had protested against having Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools.
07:48And obviously this is under the apartheid regime, you know, so there was a lot to fight for.
07:52And as they're protesting, police opened fire, and one of the first people that got shot,
07:58unfortunately, was a young man, 13 years old, by the name of Hector Peterson.
08:03So the museum here is named?
08:05Absolutely.
08:05Named after him.
08:06And you're a completely different generation.
08:09Are you a born free?
08:10Yes.
08:10You were born free.
08:12What does that history mean to you?
08:15I mean, the struggle still continues.
08:17It's just a different adaptation or evolution of the struggle.
08:21I think there's been a lot of shame, and our history has been heartbreaking.
08:25But it's time to tell a different story.
08:27Black South Africans have given birth to a lot of movements, to a lot of cultures.
08:31The voice of the black youth today in 2022 is Amapian.
08:34It's time for us to be really big and bold about how it is that we're changing the frequency of
08:39the world,
08:40whether it's musically, in fashion, in dance, in whatever culture.
08:44You know, we're able to do that without having to change our accent, without having to change our look,
08:49without having to do simply by being us and showing up as our best selves and killing it.
08:56And we deserve it.
08:57We really do.
09:03To complete my crash course in the Soweto youth scene, Bonle wants me to experience an Amapiano club night.
09:10And she knows just the place.
09:26As the club starts to fill up, the DJ ups the volume.
09:33You can't help wanting to move.
09:40It's not long before Bonle and Joseph take over the dance floor.
09:49It's such a fight.
09:51Everyone in there is just on a kind of rhythm.
09:55It's like Amapiano rhythm.
09:56Everybody just taps into it.
09:58It's really relaxed, really chill.
10:00Amapiano is like a love letter to the townships.
10:04And coming to a night like this feels like the soul of Sweto.
10:08The base of what Ikasi, township, Johannesburg, South Africa, Black Joy, culture and music is all about.
10:29Ikasi isn't just inspiring new forms of music.
10:32It's reclaiming older traditions from Africa's past.
10:39Tattoos are becoming fashionable once again for black South Africans.
10:43And a pioneering tattoo parlor is at the forefront of that change.
10:48Soweto Inc. has become a busy hub in a middle class neighborhood of the giant township.
10:53When I got my tattoo done, I met this incredible collective of women trying to increase the visibility of black
11:01women's tattoos and the African heritage of tattoo culture.
11:06And they told me about Soweto Inc.
11:07And that it really stands alone as the only cultural center on the African continent really pushing tattoos from a
11:14black perspective and pushing the professionalism, the art, the heritage, the aftercare, everything.
11:21I'm so excited that there are creatives here that are trying to keep that alive and now spread them back
11:28out across the world.
11:30I don't believe in just randomly getting tattoos.
11:33I think they should mean something to you because it is obviously a permanent mark on your body, but there
11:38is something that I've been ruminating on.
11:40So I really want to see how I feel when I get there, if I feel comfortable, if I feel
11:44like it's good energy, if I feel a connection to them and their story.
11:47If I do, there's definitely something that I have in mind.
11:54Endomiso is one half of Soweto Inc. and the business brain behind this pioneering venture.
12:07So at the time you set up Soweto Inc., was there anything black owned pioneering tattoos in a historic black
12:17neighborhood?
12:18There is nothing like Soweto Inc. in Soweto.
12:21When we started, the industry was very white.
12:24So when we came in the space, we sort of like built the culture, rebuilt the culture that probably existed,
12:30because we're not even entirely aware about our own spirituality as black people.
12:37It does appear about tattoos and African history if you go down, but it's something that's there.
12:42It's kind of crazy if you think that Africans have been practicing tattoos maybe thousands of years,
12:48but the modern tattoo industry didn't represent black people at all.
12:53Yeah, yeah. It's becoming a thing amongst black people.
12:55It's like as if it's this new trend. It's been there.
12:58It's just that, you know, now it's a different era.
13:01Hey, you guys.
13:05Are you all here to get tattoos?
13:07Yeah.
13:08Tell me about it.
13:11Today, I just want to get a random tattoo of like a canvas.
13:17So I'm a visual artist.
13:19I'm always drowning in my concept and in my arts.
13:23It's funny you say drowning because I saw that as breaking free, breaking out of the canvas.
13:28I feel like if you get this inked, it will spark that conversation with so many other people.
13:33I can't wait to see it.
13:35Why come here?
13:36Yeah.
13:37I think for me, it just kind of speaks to taking it back to where we from, you know.
13:43And there's also been this whole bad kind of connotation, especially in South Africa, about like getting tattoos.
13:49But like with Soweto ink, it kind of feels like we get to own it again, you know.
13:54We get to kind of tell our stories through the ink that we put on.
13:58Is there something about coming here knowing that they also know how to tattoo black skin that you don't have
14:02to worry about the technique and the care?
14:05Yeah, definitely.
14:07And so many places that I've been to, like maybe white places, would tell me that they can't tattoo colour
14:13on my skin because it's black.
14:16Is there a different approach to tattooing black skin?
14:20There is a technique that is being used to tattoo black skin.
14:24Sometimes you would go as a dark skinned person to a white tattoo shop and you find that the lines
14:30maybe you scarred a bit and stuff like that.
14:33Sometimes our skin is a bit dark with melanin, so they can't really, you know, see the lines properly as
14:40opposed to white skin.
14:42It's so inspiring to hear what Soweto ink has done for the community. I've decided I'm going to get a
14:49new tattoo here.
14:55I would love to get a small symbol from my Ghanaian culture on my ankle.
15:03Can you do it for me?
15:04Sure.
15:07It's called Unsuroma and it means child of the heavens.
15:12That's very nice.
15:13So I just love the idea of marking yourself as connected to divinity.
15:22So are you ready?
15:24Yeah.
15:25Are you ready?
15:26Yeah.
15:27It goes.
15:38Do you feel that it's changing? Is there in South Africa, even globally, more of a culture of black people
15:44doing tattoos?
15:47There's a lot of youth coming up getting tattoos, coming with their parents.
15:53I never had that chance where my mom can bring me to the tattoo parlor, you know?
15:57So it's really nice that people now walk, they're actually opening up to the whole thing.
16:03I love my new tattoo.
16:05It's something that I've been thinking about for a while.
16:08I feel like it was just meant to happen.
16:10And I came here, everyone was so warm.
16:12I really admire the work they've done to push the culture forward.
16:16I just think it's a really great place.
16:19It's a great vibe.
16:20And that's the kind of energy that I'm happy to leave a mark on my body.
16:26I feel like I'm starting to get a real sense of what Ikase is.
16:30It's courage in expressing your authentic experience.
16:34And creating space for that in the whole of this society.
16:38What they've done here at Sueto Inc. is really embrace their African traditions of tattooing.
16:43Solving the problem of how they haven't been represented in the rest of the tattooing world.
16:48And in doing that, they've created this really inclusive space where people from all different backgrounds come.
16:53Because it feels welcome and it feels unjudgmental.
16:56And that's the pattern that I keep seeing recurring in Ikase culture.
17:00That people who come from that background love and are proud of who they are.
17:05And want the world to be able to share in it.
17:12Amid the drive and pride, there are big challenges.
17:16Poverty in the townships was made worse by Covid lockdowns.
17:20More than two million South Africans lost their jobs in 2020.
17:24But Sueto's youth were resilient in the face of the downturn.
17:29One of the few reasons people were allowed to leave their homes was to go cycling.
17:34A colorful new scene boomed with materials and bike parts recycled into a form of art and performance.
17:43Filmmaker Senele has been documenting this street art on his YouTube channel, which has attracted almost a million hits.
17:51And interest from some big brands like Red Bull and Spotify, who bring life-changing opportunities.
17:58These young guys who I've seen on Instagram take old bike parts, bits of scrap, and build them into these
18:04new bikes that look kind of unlike anything I've ever seen before really.
18:08It's really creative and the way they pimp their bikes is just seriously unique.
18:16Hi, Senele. So nice to meet you.
18:18I'm also happy to see you.
18:19You're actually building these bikes from scratch?
18:22Yeah, we buy different parts, then assemble them.
18:25How do you look, some of you, like you're quite young. How do you learn how to build a bike?
18:30You have to know each part and what happens, the names of the parts. It's art, actually.
18:38So this culture, actually, it started from cars. Cars used to come and spin in the township.
18:44So we didn't have money to buy cars. So we just decided, let's just do spicy heat.
18:50So what are you doing with the bottles?
18:52It's for the tyres.
18:55How do you make it spin?
18:57Yeah, this is what you use to make it spin.
18:59These are just like ordinary plastic bottles that people have thrown away from.
19:04That's definitely a new way of recycling plastic I haven't seen before.
19:08This is real commitment. So every time you want to spin, you've got to do all this.
19:12Yeah.
19:13What makes you so motivated?
19:15It's fun. It's fun. And it takes the boys away from the streets.
19:21Away from drugs, smoking.
19:24Because Monday to Friday, it's school. On weekends, we do events.
19:28So there's no time to go to the streets or play in the streets.
19:33What does Akasi mean to you?
19:36To me, Akasi is a type of lifestyle because it's different from the suburbs.
19:42There's a certain way that you must behave when you're in Akasi.
19:46Yeah, and people can easily see if you're not from the cars.
19:50By the way you walk, the way you dress, the way you move.
19:54So cars, it's something that, as black South Africans, we are proud of.
19:59Yeah.
20:00These bikes are built to spin.
20:02There's another type, called stance, created simply to pose.
20:10I love to cycle back home in London, but I can't say I've ever tried a stance bike.
20:17You're so trusting.
20:18With your dream bike.
20:20OK, I'll be very careful with it.
20:26Ah, it doesn't have brakes!
20:48I'm just blown away by the resourcefulness of these cyclists.
20:52In a nearby park, local bike crews go head-to-head to see who's the best spinner in town.
20:58What are you doing?
21:00Oh my God!
21:01So it's all about your swag and style.
21:04Wow!
21:05So when you do it, you must express yourself.
21:08Whoa!
21:09As well as bragging rights, victors can win parts to customize their bikes in even more elaborate ways.
21:17OK, now it all makes sense.
21:19It's almost like it doesn't grip, which makes it usually hard to ride, but that's how they...
21:24Yeah, it's pretty cheap.
21:25OK.
21:26It's definitely a style.
21:27There's a way they dress, there's a thing with hats, with clothes, with sportswear.
21:33Woo!
21:34Oh yeah!
21:36It definitely feels like a cultural identity to do this spinning.
21:42It's like I can do this in my sleep.
21:45It's like them.
21:52It's like clothes.
21:59Hey, you guys are so good!
22:01How long have you been doing this?
22:03That was so incredible!
22:05I think he's 16.
22:072016?
22:08Yes.
22:08How old are you?
22:09now I mean I'm getting your 13 every day you're really dedicated spinning is alive spinning is
22:31it is losing out of this place this sense of having an identity rooted in a township of
22:40being proud of that identity of venting of recycling using what you've got and then
22:48wearing it with this swag super resourceful super sustainable recycling up cycling I think people
22:57here have always been doing that they've always been making the most of what's available it's
23:02just that now the rest of the world attaches a value to that because now we all have a better
23:06understanding of how scarce resources are for all of us but there's streets ahead in getting that here
23:15I hadn't necessarily heard of the word Cassie before I came here to South Africa but it's a
23:21concept that feels so universal whether it's hip-hop in America that rose out of the experiences of
23:26African Americans in the hood whether it's grime drum and bass that's come out of black British
23:33people's struggles wherever you get that kind of hardship limited resources even poverty you find
23:40that the resilience of black people gives rise to this amazing creativity and that creativity
23:46attracts people from completely different backgrounds everybody wants a piece of it
23:49because there's an energy and a swag a confidence that's just cool and that's exactly what a Cassie is
23:56it's cool it's seductive everybody wants in I've seen striking change in Soweto from streets to
24:07business but how far is the phenomenon of a Cassie spreading into wider South African culture can
24:16artists from the townships bring their vision and succeed in the South African mainstream level hang
24:24motong first gained fame on social media when her series of interconnected braided paintings attracted
24:30thousands of views and caught the eye of influential American buyers she recently secured an exhibition at the
24:39world-renowned Nirox sculpture park in Krugerstock where she follows in the footsteps of some of South
24:45Africa's most celebrated artists level hangs art is rooted in the everyday she's taking a Cassie hair traditions
24:53and style out of her small township background and into the wider world this is actually the first
25:11time I've done like a full sculpture just hey you have to take me to see it let's go and
25:18see it I'm so
25:18excited today is opening day of lever hangs debut outdoor installation and I'm first to take a peek
25:27Wow so this is the piece yes this is the piece stunning I love how it's swaying in the breeze
25:37yeah I
25:38didn't know that was gonna happen but I really love the movements you know for me I've always been someone
25:46who loves braiding right if I'm not braiding at works I'm braiding actual people you know I still
25:51play people you still have people yeah I still play people's hair mostly my family and people who are
25:57closer to me I grew up as a hair stylist I was placing people's hair long did you start 10
26:0410 years
26:05old Wow it was like a business you know I grew up in Val which is like a Cassie does
26:12like this township
26:13it's like it's like a place where first of all everybody knows each other like even now that I'm
26:19in the city I missed I miss it so much and has that experience of growing up and discovering your
26:25passion for hair in a Cassie shaped your art you know when they say that a lot of people tell
26:31their
26:33stories and secrets to a hairstylist that is very true that is I that's the one thing that stood out
26:39for me that now that I remember being at Cassie was like it was always a community of people while
26:45I'm
26:45placing just one person like it's it's who I am I tried to blend in and become a different because
26:51you know when you move to the city for the first time you just wanna it's in you just want
26:56to pretend
26:57just want to blend in I did that I did that at some point it wasn't fun so now you're
27:03proud of your roots
27:05I'm proud of my be yourself yeah then I feel like in South Africa that's happening a lot now I
27:11think
27:11it's happening a lot for other artists who are bringing the ACC life into galleries into the art spaces
27:19do people appreciate that the way you plait hair is a fashion style it's beauty but it's also art is
27:27it
27:28understood as a legitimate part of the art world I didn't get the feeling that people liked it right away
27:35instead the feeling that I got was just like people wouldn't even be here like they will be you know
27:43they wouldn't want to touch it or be close to it they'd be they'd rather like admire it from far
27:49instead of
27:50going in and touching it but I also had a lot of people who really appreciated the work like when
27:56they see the work I think they see themselves you know they're like my work mostly it celebrates the
28:03beauty it celebrates the beauty of hair styling of black hair you know it's giving them this like
28:10confidence the confident empowerment the confidence is also you know it is an art form what we do as
28:17hairstylist on people it's only seeing braids the way you have sculpted them here or in your paintings
28:25that I really appreciate how much they are an art form because when you wear it on your head it's
28:30it's
28:31your style right but you don't fully appreciate the magnitude of how beautiful and aesthetic it is
28:39yeah yeah hair is such an important and deeply personal part of how we as black women express
28:45ourselves and lever hangers offered to create a whole new look for my braids I feel like a living
28:52piece of art it's actually a real privilege it's actually nice not having a mirror because I have no
29:05idea what you're creating this is what I was intended to do wow as black women we internalize ideas about
29:17our hair I've never seen this as an art form until I saw her work really elevating the craftsmanship of
29:24this to what it is which is fine art sculpture oh wow
29:28yeah I can't believe you did that just like that that's incredible yeah and especially for her coming
29:36from a township coming from a Cassie and really wanting to celebrate that in the world and I really
29:42got a sense that it has been hard for her and she's reluctant even now to fully articulate how much
29:50rejection
29:51and skepticism she's experienced I've definitely never seen myself quite like this before I could get
29:57into it just feels exactly right it's unapologetic it's not trying to be something it's not
30:02it's proudly celebrating its authentic roots and people are starting to give it the recognition it
30:08deserves that's just incredible to see
30:10thank you so much I've absolutely loved meeting you
30:13I love meeting you too I look forward to seeing your art everywhere
30:23with styles and outlook like Lebohang's being absorbed into the mainstream
30:27young South Africans are creating a new exciting art scene taking over neighborhoods like Johannesburg's
30:34Maboneng district you immediately feel the energy here of artists reflecting ideas from below
30:41and the realities of people's everyday lives one establishment figure committed to the youth
30:48movement is William Kentridge South Africa's most renowned painter in the heart of Maboneng Kentridge
30:56has created a space called the Center for the Less Good Idea to collaborate with a Cassie inspired artists
31:05this avant-garde theatrical performance is based on a street dance called Pantsula
31:11the Center's director Fala is preparing the group for a forthcoming UK and US tour
31:18space
31:21front stop
31:41these Pantsula footsteps were once used to protest against the apartheid systems over the years Pantsula has become more than
31:51a dance it's a whole
31:52anti-establishment outlook a code for living embodied by one of South Africa's great leaders
32:12thanks you know thank you for showing me guys powerful powerful piece so it was that conversation between uh the
32:24feet and the hands because I'm a Pantsula dancer we using the
32:29lot of footwork. What is Pansula? It's a culture, you know, that is born in the township. It was
32:34born during the oppression times, during apartheid. So it's a creative human expression where people,
32:40they express themselves via clothing, via the language. It's also influenced by the politics
32:47also as well. It's more of like a culture for the survival. Pansula is very much growing and it
32:53has got a bright future. However, you don't find Pansula enough in the theatres. It hasn't yet,
32:59you know, got a theatre approach, you know. One thing I've found here in South Africa is a sense
33:06from artists that traditional art forms here sometimes are more recognised globally than within
33:13South Africa as belonging on the stage or having a value. Yeah, I can say welcome to the problems
33:21that were created by apartheid. We tend to not recognise and besides also as well South Africa
33:30is as young as is and it has got also a lot of future. So we still have a long
33:36way. It was something
33:38that was structurally, you know, designed, you know, to have a long-lasting impact over years.
33:45And there's a lot of things that have been done, you know, to the human psyche. So to reverse human
33:53behaviour
33:53and human practice, you know, takes years and years, you know, to reverse.
33:57By celebrating Pansula, are you doing something to reverse that? To say, like, we're proud of this
34:04culture. This culture belongs on a big stage. It is an art form that should be celebrated.
34:09You know, it's for other people who associate his Pansula with negativity and saying Mandela was a
34:18Pansula. They don't see the spirit of his Pansula as a culture in somebody like Mandela. Mandela refused
34:27to always wear suits as a president. He would wear his shirt, you know, his colourful shirts,
34:33dance, you know, like a Pansula would. You know, he would, you know, dance where the people thought
34:39it was inappropriate to dance. Or what was being killed by colonisation and what was being killed
34:44by, you know, apartheid wasn't. It was the spirit of who you are as a black person, a spirit of,
34:52you know,
34:53who you belong to and what you belong to.
34:58This dance brings together different elements and styles. It's exactly the kind of rich,
35:04eclectic approach championed by the Centre for the Less Good Idea.
35:07Why is it called the Centre for the Less Good Idea?
35:10The name actually comes from a Setsona proverb,
35:13which means when the good doctor cannot cure the disease, then the less good doctor will.
35:20So it's basically an idea about, so normally as artists you have this, you know, brilliant idea
35:26that you think this is the good idea, you get into the floor or into the studio, you work,
35:31it collapses. When it collapses, some ideas start to come, you know, from the periphery,
35:36they emerge and then that becomes, you know, what we call the less good idea.
35:40How do you actually create a space to encourage that process?
35:43As the anima tour, my job is to actually give the energy to the space. We're talking about,
35:49you know, architects, digital, you know, technologists, all types of artists. I tell you,
35:55when you bring two artists from two different disciplines together, something is bound to happen.
36:02And I show you, you know. I can actually hear that there's something going on in here.
36:05Exactly. So for us, it's about how do we bring artists into a making that, you know, frees them
36:13of the bureaucracy of, you know, funding, the bureaucracy of applying for things. This space has been created
36:20to free artists of those kinds of, you know, things so that they concentrate on work, on making.
36:25So that's basically what it is. And as a creative person, that sounds like heaven to me,
36:29to be free from bureaucracy and funding proposals and...
36:32Yeah, of course, you know.
36:33Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
36:41-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
36:45-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
36:48-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
36:50-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
36:50-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
37:07That was incredible, you should feel quite emotional hearing that, wow.
37:13They're going to the Barbican in London, we've got one that is going to the Royal Academy
37:18and then from there we've got others that will go to Milwaukee and Los Angeles.
37:24So you really are a hub for global...
37:27Our outlook is to put South African artists in the global map
37:33because we think that they equally have got something to say
37:36and that their expression is worthy of the world's notice.
37:41The Centre for Less Good Ideas is a name it took me a little minute to warm to
37:48because it makes it sound as if the ideas are somehow inferior
37:51but when it was explained to me I really got into it
37:55because I think some really interesting ideas that obviously have been allowed to percolate and evolve.
38:01There's definitely not a single narrative of Ikasi or blackness here.
38:05Some people I've spoken to have come from rural backgrounds,
38:08other from the more traditional Ikasi idea of a township rooted in the apartheid experience.
38:15But there is this shared language of coming from a country that has had so much oppression for black people.
38:20Coming from a background where black people have been excluded,
38:24they just instinctively create spaces that includes everyone.
38:27You would imagine that there would be more bitterness and more anger
38:32but actually it just seems to be creating a real yearning for something more positive in the future.
38:41Still, so much of what I'm seeing here and in the townships is haunted by black South Africans' experience fighting
38:49apartheid
38:49and its human and economic cost.
38:53Artists continue to challenge the boundaries and questions of African identity that apartheid raised.
39:00Nandipa Mantambo was once a forensic scientist.
39:03Now she's a world-renowned painter and sculptor, playing with the human form and gender.
39:12Some of her recent sculptures celebrate the elite warrior women of Benin,
39:16who look like they had some Ikasi spirit.
39:20But Nandipa isn't from the townships.
39:22The daughter of a bishop, she grew up in a white area under apartheid,
39:27leaving her with a split identity which she expresses in her work.
39:34Africa's oldest gallery, the Everard, is paying homage to Nandipa's diverse portfolio.
39:40So this room is a kind of combination of works that have happened over different periods of time.
39:48A painting versus a photograph versus a drawing, for me, answers different questions
39:54because how a person interacts with a drawing is totally different to how one would interact with a three-dimensional
40:00object.
40:01Your colour palette is really diverse.
40:04Yeah, I think it just depends on what I'm going through.
40:07I guess.
40:09Very rad.
40:11Yeah, it's been interesting dealing with the space of life and death
40:20and understanding it.
40:23Yes, we confront it every day in that we all have the potential to drop dead now,
40:29but it's not something that we allow ourselves to sit in, if that makes any sense.
40:37And unfortunately, like this year, I lost a kidney, had two heart attacks.
40:45Oh, my God.
40:46I'm so sorry.
40:47Yeah, no, I mean, it's over now.
40:49You're looking awful.
40:50Thanks.
40:50You never know.
40:51And so I think being confronted, you know, dealing with mortality in the sense of working in a material that's
41:01dead and having to animate it,
41:03it's completely different to confronting one's own mortality.
41:11I want to hear more about how Nandipa wrestles with expectations, and she's invited me back to her home studio.
41:21Ooh, is this your studio?
41:24Yeah.
41:24Now I'm jealous.
41:26Like every creative person dreams of having a space like this in their home.
41:31Yeah, so this is where I work from.
41:34Wow.
41:35So I have so many questions about this studio.
41:38Okay.
41:38First of all, this sink.
41:40Is this a sink?
41:41Yes.
41:41It's like maybe the biggest sink I've ever seen.
41:44Well, I tan all my cowhide myself.
41:48That's what this is for.
41:49So this is what it's for.
41:50So these are underneath some of the hides that I've tanned.
41:54What are these, like, big lumps down there?
41:56Oh, these are the mannequins.
41:58I should have taken them out.
41:59Oh, these are mannequins.
42:00But I was thinner and sexier then.
42:03Hard to imagine.
42:05You have to talk to me about this piece because I'm obsessed with it.
42:10So this is one of the works that I made quite early in my career.
42:15Human beings have always wanted to separate ourselves from the animalistic element of who we are.
42:20And so in my older works, I explored the space of the half animal, half human.
42:27And I'd created this version of myself, this creature that I called Europa,
42:34that was half Minotaur and half me when I was younger.
42:40So these are both images of you.
42:43Oh, yes.
42:43One is human, one is Minotaur.
42:46So it's like you've split your own psyche to explore.
42:49Exactly.
42:50That dynamic.
42:51And also just, I think, beyond the psyche, that space of the things that you don't necessarily want
42:58either to confront yourself or you don't want other people to know about you, you know.
43:03Can we look over here at this?
43:06Yes, sure.
43:06This is my first encounter with the sculptures that you actually shape from cow hides around your own form.
43:16Yes.
43:17This is your body?
43:17Yes, it is.
43:19The taxidermist was the one that helped me understand the formic acid and, you know, everything that one uses,
43:26which then allows me, while the cow hide is wet, to kind of, in a way, use it like a
43:33fabric.
43:34The hair still sheds, there's still traces of feces, they're still fat.
43:41So there's so many kind of layers that I have to work through to be stable enough for somebody to
43:48have it in their house and it won't give them a stinky smell or some heebie-jeebies.
43:54It's not for the squeamish.
43:56It's not the easiest or the happiest thing to deal with.
44:02I get a sense from Nandipa there's an ongoing struggle to balance daring original ideas with what is expected from
44:09a black woman artist.
44:11Being a black woman in South Africa, do you feel that there's a single narrative about the art you are
44:19expected to create?
44:20Firstly, being a sculptor, you would be a male.
44:24The second thing was that if you were a sculptor who happened to be black, you would be working in
44:32clay or in wood.
44:33Because I was black, I would need to be dealing with very kind of specifically black issues.
44:42So whether it be apartheid or just blackness in general.
44:49I'm actually interested in chemical process and not necessarily what a black skin or a black hide could represent to
44:58you.
44:59So even in giving opportunities to a black artist, it still came with conditions in a way.
45:04Probably subconscious that you should work with these materials or tell this story.
45:08You didn't feel free to just create what you felt like creating.
45:11Feeling as if one was able to, I think, just explore and not feel boxed in or stereotyped or whatever
45:31was something that was quite difficult at that time.
45:34And right now, I think that there's a struggle between creating what you would really like to be making versus
45:43what you imagined would sell.
45:46Not focusing specifically on being black.
45:51Not focusing specifically on the black body, but just understanding that I inhabit a black body.
45:57And so therefore, the black body will be there, you know.
46:03It's been fascinating talking to Nandipa.
46:06She's had a unique life.
46:09Really got a sense through her that being a black woman in South Africa is to have expectations that you
46:16will tell a certain story about race and oppression and gender.
46:20Nandipa, she's somebody who I think has been determined not to be imprisoned by those narratives, that she still wants
46:27to express herself how she wants to.
46:29And freedom, I guess, means the freedom to tell the stories you want to tell, not the stories people demand
46:34of you because of the class, race and status you were born into.
46:41South African artists like Nandipa not only shake up old narratives, they offer an intriguing new vision for the future.
46:51But how far can it go?
46:54On the south east coast lies Durban, once an apartheid-era playground for white South Africa, now its most diverse
47:02city.
47:03Zulus are the largest single ethnic group, mixing with people of Indian descent, who make up another quarter of the
47:10population.
47:12How much sway do radical art ideas from Johannesburg, or the Ikasi culture of Soweto streets, have here?
47:23This was a white-only beach up until 1994, but now it's being reclaimed as a place for everyone.
47:34And leading the change is a new generation of surfers.
47:40Sine Makubu is a pioneering black women's surfer.
47:44She competed at the elite World Surf League after getting her first break from charity Surfers Not Street Children.
47:51Now she's been tipped for Olympic glory.
47:57Sine!
47:59Hello!
48:01How are you?
48:02How are you?
48:04Great.
48:04I have heard so much about you.
48:07You're our surfing hero.
48:09Yeah.
48:10How big a part of your life is surfing?
48:13Ah, surfing.
48:14I've been tipped for 11 years now.
48:16Wow.
48:17How old are you?
48:18I'm twinked.
48:19So you started when you were nine?
48:20Yes.
48:21So everything just revolves around surfing basically.
48:27So tell me how you got into surfing.
48:30Luckily my dad is a lifeguard, so he taught me how to swim.
48:34And every day after school he would take me to the beach and I would swim and then I got
48:40introduced to the organisation and they taught me how to surf.
48:43And I've been there and I've been with them ever since.
48:46So in the absence of Surfers Not Street Children, do you think you would have had access to surfing?
48:51I don't think so.
48:52Like the boards, the wetsuits too because they're really expensive and I wouldn't know where to get them from.
49:00So do you think people are still not used to somebody from a less privileged background, somebody who's black, someone
49:05who's a girl?
49:07Like even in the water sometimes you get like weird looks and it's like, come on, I'm just enjoying the
49:11ocean.
49:12Even till today?
49:12Yeah.
49:15Sine takes me to her local board shop where surfers get their gear and Durban's new beach look is on
49:22display.
49:23And I'm going to introduce you to Spider, the shaper.
49:26The shaper, that sounds amazing.
49:29Yeah.
49:29Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie.
49:33And you get your boards here.
49:35Yes, yes, yes.
49:36Spider has been helping me for a few years now, getting my boards done, getting me prepped for competitions.
49:45Spider.
49:46Hi, Spider.
49:46Hey, how are you?
49:47Hello.
49:48Hey guys.
49:50Nice to meet you.
49:51Nice to meet you.
49:52Nice to meet you too.
49:52I've just been hearing all about you.
49:54Thank you, thank you very much.
49:55So this is your place.
49:56Yeah.
49:56It's got such nice energy.
49:58So peaceful.
49:59We try and keep it as natural as possible.
50:01Sine says you've been really supporting her.
50:03Yes.
50:04As she's grown into a serious surfer.
50:06Yes, yes.
50:07So, uh...
50:07So, Spider, how long have you been here with this shop?
50:09So, I've been doing this all my life, from school.
50:12Do you mind me asking how old you are?
50:14Uh, 75.
50:16No.
50:16Yeah.
50:17Yeah.
50:17Wow.
50:18Yeah, so...
50:19Because we live a healthier lifestyle.
50:21You really don't look it.
50:22Yeah, thank you.
50:22That's a great advertisement for the surf lifestyle.
50:25Yes.
50:26So you've lived through an immense amount of change in South Africa.
50:29When you started surfing, beaches must have still been segregated.
50:32Yes, it was, yeah.
50:33And we weren't happy.
50:34Because you know why?
50:35You know, the Hawaiians are royal to us.
50:38Because they started surfing.
50:39And when they came here, they couldn't go to this restaurant or that.
50:42And we weren't happy.
50:43We said, no, this is not cool.
50:44But now Africans got into surfing, so as soon as everybody learns to be calm in the ocean, then everything
50:52flows, yeah.
50:55As black surfers have taken to the waves, there's been growing demand for more artistic board design.
51:02Here's our safari shield here.
51:04It's like a scroll safari, so just jazz it up a little bit.
51:08It feels a little bit Zulu, because the black and white and the red, is that deliberate?
51:13Yes, yes, yes.
51:13Our traditional shield, where's one?
51:15Here's our traditional shield here.
51:17Ah.
51:18Yeah.
51:19And this is nice with the colours as well, yeah.
51:22So this is a traditional Zulu shield?
51:24Yes, yeah.
51:25So you're really incorporating African Zulu imagery?
51:29So this was like surfing safari, that's what it is, yeah.
51:31So people used to come here and get in your car and you drive and you go and look for
51:34waves, like in the…
51:36Okay, so it's the safari idea, but for stars.
51:37Yeah, with sort of unknown breaks and that, yeah.
51:42I'll just ride my skateboard then.
51:43Okay, why not? Why not?
51:46The man behind the designs is star sprayer Manla.
51:51Manla.
51:52Hey, you alright?
51:53Yeah, I am.
51:54Good.
51:54Good.
51:54Hi Manla.
51:55Hello, how are you?
51:57So nice to meet you.
51:58Nice to meet you too.
51:59Nice to meet you too.
52:00So Manla can do any colour design, he's really good at what he does.
52:03You're a real artist Manla.
52:04Yes, he is.
52:05I try, I try, I try.
52:06You can just show the guys how you do your work.
52:09No problem.
52:10No problem.
52:10Okay, thank you.
52:11Bye.
52:12Thanks guys.
52:13So how did you get into doing this?
52:15It's such a specialised thing to do.
52:18I think I was made for it because at the same time I walked in the surfboard factory, I knew
52:24what I wanted to do in here.
52:26As I walked in, I knew that I'm going to be a sprayer.
52:28I try and make the surfboards look beautiful.
52:33You do?
52:33I've seen them.
52:34Dan says they are beautiful.
52:35Yeah, that's what I do.
52:37Do you feel that there is something South African or unique, Zulu culture?
52:42Is there anything about the surf art here that's different to other places?
52:46We try and incorporate the different cultures there.
52:50Right now, there are so many black surfers that are up and coming.
52:54So they love something South African, something African on their boards.
52:59We can try and mix the two cultures together.
53:03So when you see it, you kind of love it.
53:08Because the colours, the African colours are so beautiful.
53:12So tell me about this board, what's happening here?
53:15I'm doing dice.
53:16It's going to be a dice, yeah?
53:18Three dice.
53:18It's one that they sent to me on my phone.
53:21Oh, okay.
53:22Oh, we can see it.
53:22It's very interesting.
53:24This is what I'm going to be doing on this board.
53:27Our colours are different.
53:29Especially the Indibeli cultures, you get a whole mixture of colours in their traditional clothing and stuff like that.
53:35So now this is incorporated in there.
53:38This is part of the African culture to incorporate in the surfboard.
53:43What we do now is not something we did ten years back.
53:47It's different.
53:48Because now we get to mingle with other races and other stuff.
53:53So we get to mix what we love.
53:55Does it evolve through those mixes?
53:58Exactly.
54:00I'm part of change.
54:17Quite a strong chemical smell from the spray and I was only in there for a couple of minutes.
54:23So I don't know how he does that for so many hours, but it was really fun.
54:27I think I did a decent job.
54:28Very nice.
54:30Very nice.
54:32Very nice.
54:33Very nice.
54:33Very nice.
54:34Very nice.
54:35I think even if you don't surf, you can appreciate the aesthetic.
54:39It's more than just a sports accessory.
54:43It's an art form.
54:43When you see all the boards lined up, it's like being in a gallery.
54:48They embody different cultures.
54:51The surf culture, Zulu culture, South African culture.
54:54This coming together of different cultures and identities.
54:57This history of overcoming such struggle and celebrating something new.
55:01You really feel that come through in the surfboard.
55:04I love it.
55:06It's such a bold design.
55:07Yeah, nice.
55:09Nice.
55:09Really gorgeous.
55:10I love it myself.
55:11Yeah.
55:13The visible change along South Africa's once segregated beaches is matched by a more symbolic one.
55:20The old Afrikaans annual tradition of a national braai or barbecue, celebrated only by whites during apartheid,
55:27has been transformed into a national heritage day for all South Africans.
55:33I'm all dressed up because it's the day when people wear their finest traditional outfits
55:38to celebrate the rainbow nation's cultural wealth.
55:42Sneh has invited me to join her local festival.
55:45South Africa is obviously a super diverse nation.
55:49It's got all of these different heritages.
55:51I'm really looking forward to getting a sense of the different identities,
55:56the way people wear their culture and express themselves culturally here.
56:00There's all of these people.
56:01It's only the morning already out at the beach, parading, wearing their traditional clothes.
56:07I can smell food.
56:09I think this is the closest I've come so far to understanding this idea of South Africa as a rainbow
56:13nation.
56:17Sneh, how are you doing today?
56:21Good.
56:21Good to see you.
56:23Back at the beach.
56:24Yeah.
56:25Feels a bit different today.
56:26And you look beautiful.
56:28Thank you so much.
56:29What are you wearing?
56:30I'm of Swati and South Africa and Zulu.
56:33So this is like my Swati attire and I just put some Zulu beadwork here.
56:37So you're representing your whole cultural mix.
56:40Yes.
56:40And you?
56:41You look beautiful.
56:42I love your dress.
56:42Oh, that's so nice.
56:43This is like a very Ghanaian print.
56:45So I thought I would wrap Ghana today.
56:47Beautiful.
56:48Oh, thank you.
56:49Well, there's a big market happening.
56:51Should we go and have a look around?
56:52Beautiful.
56:53Okay.
56:55Okay.
56:56That one on your shoulder.
57:03I've seen how South African arts and culture are undergoing a transformation.
57:08But there is still work to be done.
57:11Black people here were exposed to the most extreme form of racism and segregation anywhere
57:17in the world, in living memory.
57:19And yet people who I've met, who've lived through that, and those who've been born after
57:24it, they reference it, but their focus is really on the future.
57:28It's an attitude that really struck me here and in Soweto.
57:32The Akasi spirit, from dance to spinning bikes, making the most of what you have and
57:39making it cool.
57:41Perhaps in the future, this will be the origin for a new, inclusive identity for this rainbow
57:46nation.
57:49I think that's a real lesson.
57:51If you want to create, if you want to innovate, if you want to see something change, you have
57:55to look forward, whilst being true to what you've been through in the past.
58:00There is so much creativity here.
58:03I think that if South Africa is able to understand the value of its art scene, to embrace it and
58:09give it the support and nurturing it deserves, then there's literally no limit to what it will
58:14create.
58:19You can watch the other two episodes available now, just press red for BBC iPlayer.
58:25Well next, it's Trevor McDonough with the news, an appearance from Rick Mayle on The Lenny Henry
58:31Show.
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